Life is hard.

All of human history has been opportunity and adversity mixed in an endless whirlpool of change. So, too, with our lives today. There is much to be seized as our own, and there is much standing in our way. We invariably choose a path. Our youth is filled with dreams and desires, bottomless ambition, a yearning to become. And when we progress onward we embark on that road. But how easy it is to be swept off it! No road is easier to stray from than that road of rightness, that course you have set to your ideal self. There is nothing that evil hates more than a life that stays to that path of excellence.

There is great pleasure in staying that course despite all that fate throws at you. In the pain, in the suffering, in all the trials without end, there is still that feeling of contentment–the feeling that comes when you know you’re not shirking your duty, that no one can honestly say to you that you’re not trying, that you are giving your all in pursuit of what matters to you most. To persevere through it all, and stand afterwards looking back, is one of the greatest satisfactions one can experience. To remember all the times you doubted, all the moments where you thought of giving up, all those dark nights, those hard mornings, those trials that left you stewing in anxiety, those instances where everything seemed to be coming part around you. Those moments when you cried, those moments when you gritted your teeth, those moments when fear ran its cold fingers down your neck. All of those moments. To recall them once again, to feel their collective power, and then to crush them with one simple truth:

That you never quit.

Even in suffering there can be eventual pleasure. The pleasure of looking back on the times that battered you and to see how far you have come, how strong you have become, how you have succeeded where countless others have given up! That is a moment worth fighting for: the moment when you discover how unlimited you truly are.

So whatever you are facing now, face it boldly, and do not hate yourself when fear or doubt creep into your mind. Instead, accept that these are natural feelings, and choose not to let them sway you. Your path is chosen, you are committed to it, and though moments of weakness are inevitable it is the greater whole that matters. You will stumble, you will feel the barbs of fate, but you will not give up. You will persevere. You will keep wading through that whirlpool of uncertainty and chaos, a rock of human integrity, an example to those who will follow you.

Yes, there is pain, and sometimes it seems that the whole world is conspiring against you. But that is what makes it a victory: overcoming it all.

Now stay the course, my friend. One day you will look back and smile.